With our departure at midnight from St. Lucia, we had our most consistent winds EVER in our sailing adventure. We traveled five hundred nautical miles, with my (Des) night shift surfing up to 17.8 knots. Still not quite up to Dave's all time high of 22 knots on the Atlantic crossing, but definitely got my attention at 2 AM.

We anchored in Spaanse Waters, Curacao at 10:30pm, far exceeding our goal of putting the anchor down by late Christmas Eve. We patiently make the necessary visits to customs, immigration and obtaining our anchor permits. However, the latter office claimed to be open, but shut down five minutes early, then forgot to mention they would be closed after their two hour lunch upon Dave's return, nor were they open with the long holiday until 5 days later.....Reminded us of France. Island time.

We came back to the boat and felt it was time to start our Christmas festivities, making Christmas goodies and watching holiday movies.
Christmas morning we were able to talk to our families, and wish them all a special holiday. We enjoyed the peace of the harbor, our last Christmas holiday of our adventure, and the togetherness of being on the Gone Native.
We hope you and all your family had a special day of joy and celebration.